In this book, renowned philosopher John Perry responds to criticisms of his influential writing on “the essential indexical.” He begins by explaining the conclusions of his past articles. He then argues that many criticisms are based on confusions about the relation between the issues of opacity and cognitive significance, and other basic misunderstandings of his views. While dealing with criticisms, Perry makes a number of points about self-knowledge, the issue that motivated his original papers.

John Perry is the Henry Waldgrave Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University, where he has chaired the Philosophy Department and directed the Center for the Study of Language and Information, which he helped found. He is the author of numerous books, including The Art of Procrastination: A Guide to Effective Dawdling, Lollygagging and Postponing and, most recently, Studies in Language and Information, the latter also published by CSLI Publications.

1 Introduction
2 The Basic Claims
3 Opacity and Cognitive Significance
4 Names and Indexicals: New Theories of Reference
5 Names and Indexicals: Frege’s Theory of Reference
6 Referential, Nominal and Indexical Content
7 What About Opacity?
8 Hume and Heimson
9 A Prior Example
10 Kripke
11 Back to Self-Knowledge
12 Lewis’s Theory
13 The View From Everywhere
14 Conclusion
Index